Why georeferencing matters: Introducing a practical protocol to prepare species occurrence records for spatial analysis.

ABSTRACT: Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are widely used to understand environmental controls on species' ranges and to forecast species range shifts in response to climatic changes. The quality of input data is crucial determinant of the model's accuracy. While museum records can be useful sources of presence data for many species, they do not always include accurate geographic coordinates. Therefore, actual locations must be verified through the process of georeferencing. We present a practical, standardized manual georeferencing method (the Spatial Analysis Georeferencing Accuracy (SAGA) protocol) to classify the spatial resolution of museum records specifically for building improved SDMs. We used the high-elevation plant Saxifraga austromontana Wiegand (Saxifragaceae) as a case study

SUBMITTER: Bloom TDS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5756859 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature